Mailcall

Lots of name calling between groups

Editor:

It seems that the hatred and the name calling between the left and right-wing government supporters intensifies as election time grows near.

The General Petraeus incident is the latest. The general is an honorable and experienced commander and he knows well that you don't deliver bad news to the president like some generals of the past have done. Opinions are not welcome, if they are not in step with the commander in chief. It's a fact of life in the military.

Orders come from the top and they are not to be questioned or your career in the military is over. I'm not saying that this is the case with General Petraeus, he's a very smart man and he knows about the very narrow line that he must walk when giving his report. Likewise, it was not in good taste for MoveOn.org to make the comment about Petraeus' integrity.

This is typical overreaction by both sides. Fox News went so far as to call the MoveOn.org name calling an act of treason. With that said, now I wonder, where was the rage when a top White House official exposed the name of a CIA agent in revenge to her husband, Wilson, a U.S. diplomat, who was sent to Niger by the CIA, to investigate the reported sale of yellow cake uranium to Saddam Hussein and found the report to be false. Wilson's report caused an embarrassment to the White House, who was trying to make a case for war based partly on that report. Fox News said that exposing the CIA agent was no big deal because she had a desk job and her life was not in jeopardy and no crime was committed.

The point is that a high-ranking official of the United States government did the act for mellitus intent and "Scooter Libby" took the rap to protect his boss. So now I have to ask, which of these two scenarios comes closest to treason?

Wayne Donnay

MOMS Club thanks community for help with yard, bake sale

Editor:

The Payson MOMS Club wishes to thank the community for the huge success of our recent yard sale and bake sale. We raised a lot of money that will benefit the Time Out Shelter. We would like to especially thank all the moms in the club for their donations of baked goods and help Mount Cross Church and the Mowrers for the large donation of items, and the Montgomerys for the use of their tables. We can't forget to thank the newspapers and KMOG for all their wonderful advertising. You really got the word out! Thanks to all who came and found new treasures. We'll see you again next year!

The MOMS Club of Payson

Don't stop now

Editor:

We need to congratulate our mayor and town council for their forward thinking and financial planning.

At the same time, we must urge them to continue their efforts.

So far they have succeeded in reducing our town payrolls by getting rid of the town manager and eliminating our human resources department ... but let's not stop there.

Let's disband our roads crews (our roads are good enough), get rid of all our teachers and close the schools (our children are smart enough and what they need to know can be taught at home), and if we all promise to be good, live by the golden rule, never drink to excess, and never cause pain, suffering or financial loss to others, we can eliminate our police department.

Since we won't have any more arrests taking place, we will eliminate the need for a justice center,and over time we can eliminate our sales tax. If we get everyone to promise not to play with matches and to be very careful not to cause fires, we can also eliminate the fire department and all emergency personnel.

Amazing ... why didn't anyone think of this before?

I guess we just didn't have the foresight of our elected officials.

In the final analysis ... with all our problems solved, we can eliminate the town council.

With all the savings, we buy and give every resident a pair of rose-colored glasses to guarantee that everyone can see that life in Payson is as good as it could have been if Adam and Eve had not taken a bite of the apple.

Alan Kline

Pine Strawberry is a community of love

Editor:

I have lived in Pine for five years and I am constantly astounded by the generosity and kindness Pine and Strawberry residents show to one another during times of need.

Tina O'Neil was seriously hurt in a recent car accident on Highway 87 near Payson. A group of concerned parents organized a benefit for Tina and her family at the Pine Strawberry School. Volunteers donated food, time and money. Local businesses were quick to donate silent auction items.

Help poured in so readily that we were able to pull off a successful fund-raiser in less than two weeks.

More than 350olks attended Tina's Sept. 25 barbecue benefit. Because of their generosity, $3,757 was raised for the O'Neil family.

here are so many people who worked hard and deserve thanks. Doris Randall and Betsy Porter handled the silent auction. Mike Clark, superintendent/principal allowed the event to be held at the school. Patty Howard organized the food service in the school cafeteria.

Countless parent and school staff volunteers served food and handled prep and clean up. Susan and Kenny Kidd donated their famous smoked barbecue meat/sauce and The Randall House made brownies.